A Bonding Experience
by LotusRootsAndBambooShoots
Summary: An episode of downtime during a deployment to Africa, some years post series. Beast Boy (Now Changeling) and Starfire are swimming, and Raven comes to them, only to discover that they are in fact skinny dipping, and they want her to join them. It would be a nice bonding experience, wouldn't it? BBRae, with a hint of StarRae and BBStarRae.


**AN:** Have I finally betrayed you all by shifting away to non-Persona fanfic? No, I just need to work on other things sometimes. If I keep working on just Persona, I know I'll get burned out. I was honestly pushing it going on two months working on one fandom.

I hope you enjoy this story!

* * *

When she found them, it wasn't unusual to Raven that she found Changeling and Starfire swimming in the river. They were both very physical people, and more likely to find something active to do rather than sit and read a book. Three years after the Brotherhood had been put on ice, there had been evidence of a possible "Neo-Brotherhood" forming. The threat was enough to have Nightwing combing through the wilderness of Africa with his team, which was what brought Raven to where she was now, Searching for wherever her teammates had decided to pass their small amount of downtime.

It's not like she was lonely or craved their company or anything, it's just that she didn't feel like being Nightwing's sounding board, Cyborg was charging after a long day, and it was unsafe to read alone in the jungle somewhere when there could be villains about. Honest.

Starfire, sunk down up to her shoulders, was at the moment listening with rapturous interest as Changeling explained some fact about the wildlife of this particular part of the continent, the water coming up to his chest. As soon as Raven breached into the clearing, he tensed up, relaxing when he saw who it was. "Hey Rae!" He called. "Jump in!"

She sat down next to their clothes to ensure no animals made off with them, settling in with her book. "No thank you. I didn't bring my bathing suit on this trip." She answered.

Starfire paused the brutal splash war Changeling had started with her. "That is no hindrance, Friend Raven! We did not bring ours either!" she giggled.

Raven now had a sneaking suspicion that she hoped was not true. Turning her head, agonizingly slowly, she regarded their discarded clothes again. Starfire's were neatly folded, and Changeling's thrown into a pile. Sure enough, Star's bra was visible, tucked neatly under her top, and Changeling's boxers were laying on top of his red-and-white spandex outfit.

"Gar, Kori... are either of you wearing anything at all?" Raven asked evenly, feeling her cheeks heat up just asking.

"No!" Koriand'r replied cheerfully, facing Raven now and standing up to waist-deep. It took a powerful effort for Raven to not stare as water ran off her alien friends' body in rivulets. Casting about for something else to look at, the red-faced sorceress looked in the one direction she should not: At Garfield. He, too, was standing up in waist-deep water, and Raven's gaze flicked automatically down to the green blur barely visible just under the surface. She quickly shoved her face in-between the pages of her book.

"Th-that's indecent! What's wrong with you two!? If Nightwing comes back, what will he think!?" She stutter-shouted into the pages.

Gar laughed. "Hey, this is how I always swam here when I was a kid! When I found this place again, I just had to! Kori joined me after."

Koriand'r nodded, unseen by her hiding, blushing teammate. "I see no problem with swimming nude with my friend. It would never be any issue on Tamaran, and if Boyfriend Nightwing is that disturbed, then we will just have to find a compromise. Besides, it is nothing that the two of us have not seen before!"

She had to give her that one. It was difficult to live with the same group of people for several years without seeing each other... lightly clad. Which, by the way, did not mean that there was any truth to allegations that Raven had any idea Gar was just getting out of the shower when she barged in without knocking. Twice.

"C'mon, Rae, put the book down and join us," Gar said. "Swimming in a river is waaaay better than a standing pool!"

"You should, Friend Raven!" Kori added. "it feels so much closer to Earth's nature! And it is a wonderful bonding experience!"

Raven read the same sentence for what must have been the fiftieth time in the last few minutes, trying hard to not think about the very attractive, very naked friends of hers splashing about in the river just ten feet away from her. She gave it a valiant effort. And at the same time, for some reason, putting the book down to look seemed so much harder than sneaking a peek at Starfire while she was changing. Sure, Gar was raised out here and had no problem with skinny dipping, while Starfire had a different concept of modesty entirely, but this was just indecent, inappropriate, and far too inviting. She finally managed to lower her novel just in time to catch sight of Gar changing back to his human form from something, rolling his shoulders afterwards to work out the kinks of transformation. She bit her lower lip as water beaded on his finely toned emerald back. My, how things change in a few years time.

By the time her eyes had strayed down further, she was already unconsciously unclasping her cloak. She laid it out on the ground to protect the rest of her outfit from dirt, and slowly, nervously, started to pull her leotard down her shoulders. She had gotten it almost to her midsection when Changeling shouted "Woooo!" behind her, followed by Starfire's "Take it off, Raven!"

Raven clapped one arm over her breasts and whirled around to glare at them. "Was that 'stop stripping and come swim in your leotard' I heard from you two?"

Gar and Kori suddenly seemed quite interested in the river's other bank.

"That's what I thought." Raven muttered, slipping her leotard off and kicking off her shoes. She set her book down on top of the clothes to weigh them down, and her hands hovered hesitantly over her panties for a moment before she yanked them off and spun on her heel to join her friends in the water. It felt very... _odd_ to be outdoors and naked.

They were still trying not to look at her, for the sake of her comfort, but Gar was clearly straining. He tried to peek discretely, but ended up just staring openly with a goofy, vacant expression. Raven sighed. "Don't mock me, Gar. If there's anyone worth staring at here, she's not me." She hadn't stopped covering her chest since she got in. She really didn't think she was much to look at, at least not compared to Mr. Sculpted-Out-of-Jade to her left, and the literally out of this world bombshell to her right. Compared to them, she felt kind of... plain.

Kori crossed over to Gar and flicked him on the forehead. He seemed to wake up, and shook the cobwebs out. "Who's mocking, Rae? You look _beautiful~_ "

She turned away from him, and Starfire gently turned Raven's head up to look her in the eye. Her expression was gentle and understanding. "Friend Garfield is telling the truth, Raven. You are a gorgeous woman, and you have no reason to be embarrassed around us. However, if your are truly so uncomfortable, We will not mind if you wish to leave."

Raven started to lower her arm, but not completely. "No, I'm alright, I... It's just hard to compete with you, Starfire."

"We are not competing, Raven," Starfire said soothingly. "We are swimming." And she pulled her friend over and into the water with her.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, the three friends had tired themselves out before they knew it, forgetting how much work it is just to stand in moving water. Raven had warmed up to it eventually, ceased covering herself and joined her friends in earnest. As it worked out, it _was_ quite the bonding experience, she felt. She was even a little more confident now that it was over. And the feeling of having Gar and Kori's eyes on her body rather than just her eyes on theirs was... exhilarating.

After they dried off, (Changeling by turning into a dog and shaking, Starfire by streaking through the sky at top speed, "Hehe, streaking" Garfield said, and Raven by magic,) it was time to get dressed again. "See, Rae? Told ya it would be fun." Gar said, pulling on his boxers, to Raven's slight disappointment.

"It was... alright." She admitted, pulling on her leotard. She briefly considered asking one of them to zip her up, but decided it would be too embarrassing if one of them called her out on it, so she just used her telekinesis after all.

" _Just_ alright...?" Gar singsonged, almost leaning his head on her shoulder.

She sighed. "Okay, it was a lot of fun. And... thank you both for making me feel less... awkward about it."

Starfire positively beamed. "We are very happy to help, Raven. It would bring me no end of joy were you to view yourself better."

Raven pulled her hood up. "I can't just..." She started, and fell silent. The other two waited on her patiently. "You both know who I am. What I am. But you've accepted me anyway. I still have a hard time believing it, even now..."

Garfield approached her, his face inches from hers. "Raven, I love you. You know that, right?"

A warmth spread throughout her chest and she nodded. "I love you too, Gar." No matter how many times she had heard it, it still seemed as if she couldn't believe it was true until the next time he said it.

"Then please believe me, Rae... there's nothing that I would change about you, given the chance. Nothing." He caressed her face with his still ungloved hand and she savored the rare feeling of his claws gently poking her flesh. From her other side, Kori floated in and left a gentle kiss on her cheek, taking a firm hold of one of Raven's hands while Gar took the other.

"It will be sundown soon, friends. We should rejoin the others." Kori said.

"Um... can we... can we do this again, if we get the chance?" Raven's voice was quiet and her face almost fully hidden in her hood.

Changeling grinned. "I'm sure we can find another river before we head back to Cali."

* * *

 **End Notes:** I'm not the biggest Titans expert, that's for sure. But I can't get enough of these three characters, and so today I just sat down and wrote this. It started as one thing, but ended up changing to something completely different later. I hope it was an entertaining read! I'd love to read anything you have to say about this story, to be honest I'm not too confident in it.

Thanks for reading, have a good one! Normal Persona uploads will resume when I am rested enough to work on them again.


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